If you can afford parochial/ private, why do you stay in MCPS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because I'm not seeing better outcomes for kids in parochial/private. My neice and her friends who were in private didn't get accepted at colleges that were better than kids in public. Why would I pay $25K a year for my kid to get accepted to Catholic University or Delaware?

We had a babysitter who graduated from Visi and went to Clemson. My neighbor graduated from MCPS (non magnet) and went to Clemson also.
This point is what keeps me from moving my kids. Can’t imaging paying a so much $$ for no guaranteed outcome, or at least the same outcome
You can get for free.
That, and they’re 15 and 13. Might as well just finish out now.

This! Our neighborhood is split between kids who go to private HS and kids who go to public in the DCC. The private and public school kids end up at many of the same schools and the few who’ve gone onto the truly elite schools and ivies are the public school kids. There are many factors here, but i just don’t know that privates offer the advantage I’d want them to in terms of college admission and success, particularly because so far my kids seem to be doing well at MCPS schools and have good teachers, peer group, and support. That said, when I visit private schools for games, etc I can totally see the appeal: gorgeous campuses, smaller classes, etc.

Just wait...you will learn just how badly your kids' grades are inflated. It is a big problem and college admissions officers know about this. Good luck.

DP.. bethesda beat publishes a class of xxxx in MCPS where they accepted for college. Pretty impressive list. Not arguing that there is no grade inflation in public schools, MCPS, but it's a mistake to say that MCPS students aren't going to elite univ, and not just the magnet kids.

of course, a lot of private school kids end up in elite univ too, but let's remember that a large % of admits in elite univ are based on legacies, which many private school parents are.

You'd have to compare like for like, and also recall that unlike private schools, public schools cannot choose who they admit as students.

I would caution to read that data cautiously. From my HS experience from many years ago, there were 5 kids that were accepted to multiple Ivies and after that it was state flagship for the next tier, then state land grant, then state regional, then community college. There is most likely a very, very small cohort of hyper-competitive superstar students that are filling out most of the numbers for the most selective schools. That kid would be successful in any environment and is highly unlikely to be your kid. In short, it’s not 3 kids to Princeton, 1 to Yale, 2 to Brown. It’s just five kids collecting multiple Ivy acceptances like trophies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because I'm not seeing better outcomes for kids in parochial/private. My neice and her friends who were in private didn't get accepted at colleges that were better than kids in public. Why would I pay $25K a year for my kid to get accepted to Catholic University or Delaware?

We had a babysitter who graduated from Visi and went to Clemson. My neighbor graduated from MCPS (non magnet) and went to Clemson also.
This point is what keeps me from moving my kids. Can’t imaging paying a so much $$ for no guaranteed outcome, or at least the same outcome
You can get for free.
That, and they’re 15 and 13. Might as well just finish out now.

This! Our neighborhood is split between kids who go to private HS and kids who go to public in the DCC. The private and public school kids end up at many of the same schools and the few who’ve gone onto the truly elite schools and ivies are the public school kids. There are many factors here, but i just don’t know that privates offer the advantage I’d want them to in terms of college admission and success, particularly because so far my kids seem to be doing well at MCPS schools and have good teachers, peer group, and support. That said, when I visit private schools for games, etc I can totally see the appeal: gorgeous campuses, smaller classes, etc.

Just wait...you will learn just how badly your kids' grades are inflated. It is a big problem and college admissions officers know about this. Good luck.

DP.. bethesda beat publishes a class of xxxx in MCPS where they accepted for college. Pretty impressive list. Not arguing that there is no grade inflation in public schools, MCPS, but it's a mistake to say that MCPS students aren't going to elite univ, and not just the magnet kids.

of course, a lot of private school kids end up in elite univ too, but let's remember that a large % of admits in elite univ are based on legacies, which many private school parents are.

You'd have to compare like for like, and also recall that unlike private schools, public schools cannot choose who they admit as students.

I would caution to read that data cautiously. From my HS experience from many years ago, there were 5 kids that were accepted to multiple Ivies and after that it was state flagship for the next tier, then state land grant, then state regional, then community college. There is most likely a very, very small cohort of hyper-competitive superstar students that are filling out most of the numbers for the most selective schools. That kid would be successful in any environment and is highly unlikely to be your kid. In short, it’s not 3 kids to Princeton, 1 to Yale, 2 to Brown. It’s just five kids collecting multiple Ivy acceptances like trophies.

Sure, of course the vast majority of kids in a large public end up at nonelites. But again, you have to compare like for like, and that means legacies vs legacies, URM vs URM, and UMC unhook vs UMC unhook. Not the easiest comparison to find. So, BB list is the next best list.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because I'm not seeing better outcomes for kids in parochial/private. My neice and her friends who were in private didn't get accepted at colleges that were better than kids in public. Why would I pay $25K a year for my kid to get accepted to Catholic University or Delaware?

We had a babysitter who graduated from Visi and went to Clemson. My neighbor graduated from MCPS (non magnet) and went to Clemson also.
This point is what keeps me from moving my kids. Can’t imaging paying a so much $$ for no guaranteed outcome, or at least the same outcome
You can get for free.
That, and they’re 15 and 13. Might as well just finish out now.

This! Our neighborhood is split between kids who go to private HS and kids who go to public in the DCC. The private and public school kids end up at many of the same schools and the few who’ve gone onto the truly elite schools and ivies are the public school kids. There are many factors here, but i just don’t know that privates offer the advantage I’d want them to in terms of college admission and success, particularly because so far my kids seem to be doing well at MCPS schools and have good teachers, peer group, and support. That said, when I visit private schools for games, etc I can totally see the appeal: gorgeous campuses, smaller classes, etc.

Just wait...you will learn just how badly your kids' grades are inflated. It is a big problem and college admissions officers know about this. Good luck.

DP.. bethesda beat publishes a class of xxxx in MCPS where they accepted for college. Pretty impressive list. Not arguing that there is no grade inflation in public schools, MCPS, but it's a mistake to say that MCPS students aren't going to elite univ, and not just the magnet kids.

of course, a lot of private school kids end up in elite univ too, but let's remember that a large % of admits in elite univ are based on legacies, which many private school parents are.

You'd have to compare like for like, and also recall that unlike private schools, public schools cannot choose who they admit as students.

I would caution to read that data cautiously. From my HS experience from many years ago, there were 5 kids that were accepted to multiple Ivies and after that it was state flagship for the next tier, then state land grant, then state regional, then community college. There is most likely a very, very small cohort of hyper-competitive superstar students that are filling out most of the numbers for the most selective schools. That kid would be successful in any environment and is highly unlikely to be your kid. In short, it’s not 3 kids to Princeton, 1 to Yale, 2 to Brown. It’s just five kids collecting multiple Ivy acceptances like trophies.

Sure, of course the vast majority of kids in a large public end up at nonelites. But again, you have to compare like for like, and that means legacies vs legacies, URM vs URM, and UMC unhook vs UMC unhook. Not the easiest comparison to find. So, BB list is the next best list.

No not easy at all, and as I mentioned earlier, this should not be the reason one enrolls their child in a private HS. We are not legacy or hooked, and DS got into a top 20 (not an ivy, but top school). He has friends who got into ivies who were athletes, but also friends who were bright and driven with no hooks. We saw a very nice distribution among the top 50 schools in his high school. I don't think you see that at MCPS as the PP points out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In the Whitman cluster with ES kids. We are generally happy with our teachers and love our school community, but classes for my kindergartner and 4th grader have 25+ kids. The administrators are also extremely frustrating communicators and under qualified. My oldest needed some additional assistance learning to read, which we accomplished through after school tutoring. I am not sure we are quite ready to switch to private school quite yet, but my spouse is.

If you can afford parochial or private school, why do you keep your kids in MCPS?

We'd like to retire sooner rather than later, we have college expenses to look at, and we can't see sending my kids to a parochial for for religious indoctrination that doesn't match our beliefs.

Oh, and we find MCPS to be quite good despite all the people on DCUM lambasting 'em.

Does your kid feel safe?

What planet do you live on? Public schools in this country are extremely segregated by SES because public school funding comes out of property tax bills. Thus people who can afford to send their kids to private school likely live in a neighborhood whose public school pyramid is comprised with mostly white /
Asian kids with professional parents who are well off. Yes, their kids feel safe at school.

Really? So because their school is mostly white, they are safer? What about the knife incident at Churchill and most recently the gun found on the WJ student just this weekend. Public high schools are cesspools of disturbed youth. I'm sending mine to all girls.

FYI there's some scary stuff going on there, too.

I’m sorry to say there are disturbed kids everywhere these days. It’s very sad and at least in a large pool of kids your child can try to avoid them. It’s a hard time right now.

When was the last time you heard of a violent crime in an all girls school? Shooting? Like I said, I feel my daughter will be much safer in an all girls environment and grateful we have the means for it.

It was all eating disorders, suicide attempts, unplanned pregnancy, and addiction disorders at my all-girl HS. I guess that’s better?? Much more expensive to treat than a gunshot wound, though, my dad would want me to add.

LOL, all that stuff exists at public schools as well on a larger scale. Try again.

Unless things have really changed, the biggest coke habits didn't belong to girls at Whitman

[Anonymous]

I didn't read this whole thing but we stayed in MCPS over private because my kid is a self started and in the band - and music at Whitman is better than other privates nearby. If he wasn't a good student or doing something that the school excelled at, we might have moved him.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because I'm not seeing better outcomes for kids in parochial/private. My neice and her friends who were in private didn't get accepted at colleges that were better than kids in public. Why would I pay $25K a year for my kid to get accepted to Catholic University or Delaware?

We had a babysitter who graduated from Visi and went to Clemson. My neighbor graduated from MCPS (non magnet) and went to Clemson also.
This point is what keeps me from moving my kids. Can’t imaging paying a so much $$ for no guaranteed outcome, or at least the same outcome
You can get for free.
That, and they’re 15 and 13. Might as well just finish out now.

This! Our neighborhood is split between kids who go to private HS and kids who go to public in the DCC. The private and public school kids end up at many of the same schools and the few who’ve gone onto the truly elite schools and ivies are the public school kids. There are many factors here, but i just don’t know that privates offer the advantage I’d want them to in terms of college admission and success, particularly because so far my kids seem to be doing well at MCPS schools and have good teachers, peer group, and support. That said, when I visit private schools for games, etc I can totally see the appeal: gorgeous campuses, smaller classes, etc.

Just wait...you will learn just how badly your kids' grades are inflated. It is a big problem and college admissions officers know about this. Good luck.

DP.. bethesda beat publishes a class of xxxx in MCPS where they accepted for college. Pretty impressive list. Not arguing that there is no grade inflation in public schools, MCPS, but it's a mistake to say that MCPS students aren't going to elite univ, and not just the magnet kids.

of course, a lot of private school kids end up in elite univ too, but let's remember that a large % of admits in elite univ are based on legacies, which many private school parents are.

You'd have to compare like for like, and also recall that unlike private schools, public schools cannot choose who they admit as students.

I would caution to read that data cautiously. From my HS experience from many years ago, there were 5 kids that were accepted to multiple Ivies and after that it was state flagship for the next tier, then state land grant, then state regional, then community college. There is most likely a very, very small cohort of hyper-competitive superstar students that are filling out most of the numbers for the most selective schools. That kid would be successful in any environment and is highly unlikely to be your kid. In short, it’s not 3 kids to Princeton, 1 to Yale, 2 to Brown. It’s just five kids collecting multiple Ivy acceptances like trophies.

Sure, of course the vast majority of kids in a large public end up at nonelites. But again, you have to compare like for like, and that means legacies vs legacies, URM vs URM, and UMC unhook vs UMC unhook. Not the easiest comparison to find. So, BB list is the next best list.

No not easy at all, and as I mentioned earlier, this should not be the reason one enrolls their child in a private HS. We are not legacy or hooked, and DS got into a top 20 (not an ivy, but top school). He has friends who got into ivies who were athletes, but also friends who were bright and driven with no hooks. We saw a very nice distribution among the top 50 schools in his high school. I don't think you see that at MCPS as the PP points out.

Among children whose parents could otherwise afford private school, that is the expectation

[Anonymous]

no one - and certainly no one worth working for - cares about where you went to college

public school kids are even if not further ahead than their private counterparts from a career standpoint, and that's without the legacy and nepotistic hookups

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:no one - and certainly no one worth working for - cares about where you went to college

public school kids are even if not further ahead than their private counterparts from a career standpoint, and that's without the legacy and nepotistic hookups

Is that why the top tech employers only recruit from a handful of schools? Do you think Goldman Sachs would take a graduate of Longwood as an entry level employee on any kind of track that had a shot of advancement? Are consulting companies hiring from Coppin State?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:no one - and certainly no one worth working for - cares about where you went to college

public school kids are even if not further ahead than their private counterparts from a career standpoint, and that's without the legacy and nepotistic hookups

Is that why the top tech employers only recruit from a handful of schools? Do you think Goldman Sachs would take a graduate of Longwood as an entry level employee on any kind of track that had a shot of advancement? Are consulting companies hiring from Coppin State?

I would also add that many of the top schools have amazing alumni networking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because I'm not seeing better outcomes for kids in parochial/private. My neice and her friends who were in private didn't get accepted at colleges that were better than kids in public. Why would I pay $25K a year for my kid to get accepted to Catholic University or Delaware?

We had a babysitter who graduated from Visi and went to Clemson. My neighbor graduated from MCPS (non magnet) and went to Clemson also.
This point is what keeps me from moving my kids. Can’t imaging paying a so much $$ for no guaranteed outcome, or at least the same outcome
You can get for free.
That, and they’re 15 and 13. Might as well just finish out now.

This! Our neighborhood is split between kids who go to private HS and kids who go to public in the DCC. The private and public school kids end up at many of the same schools and the few who’ve gone onto the truly elite schools and ivies are the public school kids. There are many factors here, but i just don’t know that privates offer the advantage I’d want them to in terms of college admission and success, particularly because so far my kids seem to be doing well at MCPS schools and have good teachers, peer group, and support. That said, when I visit private schools for games, etc I can totally see the appeal: gorgeous campuses, smaller classes, etc.

Just wait...you will learn just how badly your kids' grades are inflated. It is a big problem and college admissions officers know about this. Good luck.

DP.. bethesda beat publishes a class of xxxx in MCPS where they accepted for college. Pretty impressive list. Not arguing that there is no grade inflation in public schools, MCPS, but it's a mistake to say that MCPS students aren't going to elite univ, and not just the magnet kids.

of course, a lot of private school kids end up in elite univ too, but let's remember that a large % of admits in elite univ are based on legacies, which many private school parents are.

You'd have to compare like for like, and also recall that unlike private schools, public schools cannot choose who they admit as students.

I would caution to read that data cautiously. From my HS experience from many years ago, there were 5 kids that were accepted to multiple Ivies and after that it was state flagship for the next tier, then state land grant, then state regional, then community college. There is most likely a very, very small cohort of hyper-competitive superstar students that are filling out most of the numbers for the most selective schools. That kid would be successful in any environment and is highly unlikely to be your kid. In short, it’s not 3 kids to Princeton, 1 to Yale, 2 to Brown. It’s just five kids collecting multiple Ivy acceptances like trophies.

Sure, of course the vast majority of kids in a large public end up at nonelites. But again, you have to compare like for like, and that means legacies vs legacies, URM vs URM, and UMC unhook vs UMC unhook. Not the easiest comparison to find. So, BB list is the next best list.

No not easy at all, and as I mentioned earlier, this should not be the reason one enrolls their child in a private HS. We are not legacy or hooked, and DS got into a top 20 (not an ivy, but top school). He has friends who got into ivies who were athletes, but also friends who were bright and driven with no hooks. We saw a very nice distribution among the top 50 schools in his high school. I don't think you see that at MCPS as the PP points out.

Is this based on fact or just anecdotes and "what you feel"? MCPS has 160K kids, and like 15 + HS. How on earth would you be able to figure out if there is not a "nice distribution" of students getting into elite univ from MCPS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:no one - and certainly no one worth working for - cares about where you went to college

public school kids are even if not further ahead than their private counterparts from a career standpoint, and that's without the legacy and nepotistic hookups

Is that why the top tech employers only recruit from a handful of schools? Do you think Goldman Sachs would take a graduate of Longwood as an entry level employee on any kind of track that had a shot of advancement? Are consulting companies hiring from Coppin State?

Tech companies care about your skills not where you went to college
Goldman Sachs 1) like i said worth working for 2) hardly anyone from privates in the DMV is going on to work there
Coppin State - and there's the arrogant elitism!

there is zero career difference for those who went to private vs public

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In the Whitman cluster with ES kids. We are generally happy with our teachers and love our school community, but classes for my kindergartner and 4th grader have 25+ kids. The administrators are also extremely frustrating communicators and under qualified. My oldest needed some additional assistance learning to read, which we accomplished through after school tutoring. I am not sure we are quite ready to switch to private school quite yet, but my spouse is.

If you can afford parochial or private school, why do you keep your kids in MCPS?

Because it is truly about being an involved parent, providing a stable home life, and encouraging your child. The school really doesn’t matter much. I know it may be hard for some of you to believe, but I attended PG schools as did all of my friends and we are all thriving professionals. The common denominator is that all of us came from stable, supportive families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:no one - and certainly no one worth working for - cares about where you went to college

public school kids are even if not further ahead than their private counterparts from a career standpoint, and that's without the legacy and nepotistic hookups

Is that why the top tech employers only recruit from a handful of schools? Do you think Goldman Sachs would take a graduate of Longwood as an entry level employee on any kind of track that had a shot of advancement? Are consulting companies hiring from Coppin State?

Coppin State - and there's the arrogant elitism!

Poster decided to single out Coppin State,an HBCU too. You can add "and there's the racism"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:no one - and certainly no one worth working for - cares about where you went to college

public school kids are even if not further ahead than their private counterparts from a career standpoint, and that's without the legacy and nepotistic hookups

Is that why the top tech employers only recruit from a handful of schools? Do you think Goldman Sachs would take a graduate of Longwood as an entry level employee on any kind of track that had a shot of advancement? Are consulting companies hiring from Coppin State?

Tech companies care about your skills not where you went to college
Goldman Sachs 1) like i said worth working for 2) hardly anyone from privates in the DMV is going on to work there
Coppin State - and there's the arrogant elitism!

there is zero career difference for those who went to private vs public

PP said college, and no, tech companies do not recruit on campus outside of a limited number of schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:no one - and certainly no one worth working for - cares about where you went to college

public school kids are even if not further ahead than their private counterparts from a career standpoint, and that's without the legacy and nepotistic hookups

Is that why the top tech employers only recruit from a handful of schools? Do you think Goldman Sachs would take a graduate of Longwood as an entry level employee on any kind of track that had a shot of advancement? Are consulting companies hiring from Coppin State?

Tech companies care about your skills not where you went to college
Goldman Sachs 1) like i said worth working for 2) hardly anyone from privates in the DMV is going on to work there
Coppin State - and there's the arrogant elitism!

there is zero career difference for those who went to private vs public

100%!!! It’s all about your work ethic and the major you choose.